Macron Stretches Lead As French Presidential Campaign Enters Final Day

Centrist French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron extended his lead in the polls over his far-right rival Marine Le Pen on Friday, the final day of a tumultuous election campaign that has turned the country’s politics upside down.

The election is seen as the most important in France for decades with two diametrically opposed views of Europe and France’s place in the world at stake.

The National Front’s Le Pen would close borders and quit the euro currency, while independent Macron, who has never held elected office, wants closer European cooperation and an open economy. The candidates of France’s two mainstream parties were both eliminated in the first round on April 23.

Four new polls showed Macron on track to win 62 percent of the votes in the second round compared to 38 percent for Le Pen, his best score in a voting survey by a major polling organization since nine other candidates were eliminated in the first round on April 23. A fifth poll showed him on 61.5 percent. Read more at REUTERS.